The Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One are selling at a significantly higher rate than the preceding consoles did in their first year.

According to video-game retailer GameStop, and reported by gaming website GameSpot, the installed base of the latest platforms in the US a year after their release is 73pc greater than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 base was during the equivalent time period.

Those figures were revealed as GameStop announced its third-quarter earnings ending 1 November. Despite the booming hardware market, software sales fell 34.4pc on the same quarter last year, which the company attributes to the number of marquee games launched during the period in 2013, such as Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield 4, Batman: Arkham Origin and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

On top of that, Assassin’s Creed Unity was originally due to be released in late October, but was instead delayed until November 11.

“Overall, most of our major product categories performed very well, but our third-quarter results were impacted by Assassin’s Creed Unity moving out of October,” GameStop CEO Paul Raines said in a statement.

Just last week, Microsoft announced sales of the Xbox One were about to pass the 10m threshold, with the company claiming the impressive figures were down to an aggressive pricing strategy.